Win: Rock The Barre!

4 November 2014

Meet our new blogger friend Jen Slater of Eclectic Cake, who has braved it this week by taking on new class Rock The Barre. "Using ballet as the inspiration, you’ll plié and arabesque until your core trembles" she says.

Music is so personal. What rocks my socks may not make your hip hop. Me? I love a dirty guitar riff, not-quite-perfect shouty vocals and the odd ripped t-shirt. So, boasting the likes of Foo Fighters, Red Hot Chili Peppers and Kings of Leon on the playlist, Rock the Barre was the class for me.

The familiar beats were enough to make me (almost) comfortable at the barre. With absolutely no dance background, besides bouncing around a club like a loon at 3am, I perhaps belong at a different type of bar but it turns out that thing is a good friend! Grip it tightly to keep yourself upright as you fling a leg in the air, let it keep you steady as you lower yourself towards the ground and use it to haul yourself back up.

That's not to say it will do all the hard work for you, though, oh no! Using ballet as the inspiration, you’ll plié and arabesque until your core trembles. Besides the odd crazy first pump when the choruses kick in, this class is all about control – using every inch of your strength to make each movement precise (and to stop you tumbling over your own feet). Think long, long, lean ballerina legs and beautifully sculpted abs with the flexibility to headbang an inch above your toes.

I’m not cracking out the black, studded tutu just yet, though. We were taken through a combination of moves, building them up to dance it out to a final track but when it came to putting it all together, my goldfish brain settled for a large section of ‘freestyling’. In my head I was a rockin’ Darcy Bussell, in reality I was probably more a mosh-pitting mess. Either way, finishing with the ring of drumming in my ears, covered in sweat and slightly battered, as with the end of a gig, was a sure sign I’d had a blast!"